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Bernardo Ruiz is a documentary director and producer. His directorial feature debut, “Reportero” (POV, PBS 2013) about attacks on the press in Mexico, was nominated for a 2014 News and Documentary Emmy® Award and premiered at Full Frame (U.S.), IDFA (Europe) and Ambulante (Mexico). New York Magazine called it “a powerful reminder of how journalism often requires immense amounts of physical and psychological bravery.” His latest feature documentary, “Kingdom of Shadows” produced by Participant Media, was called “unforgettable” by The New York Times and premiered at SXSW in the U.S. and IDFA in Europe. “Many documentaries have chronicled the drug war in the U.S. and Mexico,” writes Slackerwood of the film, “but few have humanized it as poignantly as Kingdom of Shadows. [It] is more observant than crusading...rooted in first-rate journalism.”

Ruiz founded Quiet Pictures, a New York-based production company, in 2007 in order to produce independent documentaries. Through Quiet, he created and Executive-Produced the two part bilingual PBS series, “The Graduates/Los Graduados” for PBS’s Independent Lens. The series, about the lives of six Latino and Latina students, was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and co-produced with ITVS. Edutopia called it “a winner that should be seen by as many students, teachers and parents as possible.” Ruiz wrote, directed and produced American Experience: Roberto Clemente (PBS, 2008) which was awarded the NCLR, “Alma” Award for “Outstanding Made for Television Documentary.”

Bernardo currently serves on the advisory board of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and previously served on the council of the Writer’s Guild of America, East. In the fall of 2015 he was a filmmaker in residence at the Investigative Reporting Program, at the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.